CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
326 km from Acre to Acre, about 5 h 37 of riding. It goes by way of Mount Amel Castles, Anjar and back through Mount Amel Castles. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Israel into Lebanon - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 62 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Acre has been a port for roughly four thousand years, but the city you walk through today is a layered one. Beneath the Ottoman streets lies the headquarters of the Crusader kingdom's last years, when Acre was the capital and a thriving trading harbour, with the Knights Hospitaller building a vast complex of vaulted halls that were buried and forgotten for centuries. In 1291 the Mamluks took the city, and with that the Crusader presence on the mainland ended. The tunnels and halls have been dug out and restored, and walking through the knights' halls is eerie and cool even in August.
Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Acre is where the day begins. Next is Mount Amel Castles.
It is a region of terraced slopes, olive groves, tobacco patches and stone villages, with the Hula valley falling away to the east and the long wall of Mount Hermon hanging over everything on a clear day. The nearest settlements are Ain Ebel on the Lebanese side and Qiryat Shemona and Metulla on the Israeli side, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place: this is a frontier, and the frontier shapes every road.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mount Amel Castles comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Anjar.
In the Bekaa valley of Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, an Umayyad city lies laid out in a perfect grid, as if drawn with a ruler. Anjar was built in the early eighth century, probably under the caliph al-Walid I, as a palace town and commercial centre on the trade routes between Damascus and the coast. Its plan echoes Roman cities, with two main streets crossing at a four-sided monument, the tetrapylon, lined with the bases of hundreds of shops. Arches of the great palace, built of alternating courses of stone and brick, rise against the backdrop of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, and in the late afternoon the stone glows warm gold. The city flourished only briefly before being abandoned, which is why it is so clearly preserved. UNESCO listed it in 1984.
Read the complete Anjar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 163 km into the recorded legs you reach Anjar. Next is back through Mount Amel Castles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mount Amel Castles, late in the day. Next is Old City of Acre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Old City of Acre. That is the ride.
Old City of Acre → Mount Amel Castles is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Amel Castles → Anjar is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Anjar → back through Mount Amel Castles is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Mount Amel Castles → Old City of Acre is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.